70 



PRIVATE BUSINESS. 



Dr. Indian showed a specimen of the Spider Crab, and the 

 ova of the Arenicola piscatorum, with the worm attached. 



Dr. Warwick, a visitor, detailed some remarkable instances 

 of instinct, or of intelligence, in animals, winch had come 

 under his personal observation. 



When he resided at Durham, the seat of the Earl of Stam- 

 ford and Warrington, he was walking one evening in the park, 

 and came to a pond, where fish intended for the table were 

 temporarily kept. He took particular notice of a fine pike, 

 of about six pounds weight, which, when it observed him, 

 darted hastily away. In so doing, it struck its head against 

 a tenterhook in a post (of which there were several in the 

 pond, placed to prevent poaching), and, as it afterwards 

 appeared, fractured its skull, and turned the optic nerve on 

 one side. The agony evinced by the animal appeared most hor- 

 rible. It rushed to the bottom, and, boring its head into the 

 mud, whirled itself round with such velocity that it was 

 almost lost to the sight for a short interval. It then plunged 

 about the pond, and at length threw itself completely out of 

 the water on to the bank. He (the doctor) went and exa- 

 mined it, and found that a very small portion of the brain was 

 protruding from the fracture in the skull. He carefully re- 

 placed this, and, with a small silver tooth- pick, raised the 

 indented portion of the skull. The fish remained still for a 

 short time, and he then put it again into the pond. It 

 appeared at first a good deal relieved, but in a few minutes it 

 again darted and plunged about until it threw itself out of the 

 water a second time. A second time Dr. Warwick did what 

 he could to relieve it, and again put it into the water. It 

 continued for several times to throw itself out of the pond, 

 and, with the assistance of the keeper, the doctor at length 

 made a kind of pillow for the fish, winch was then left in the 



